What is Kimchi? There is not much separating kimchi from sauerkraut. But when you make kimchi ,you probably mix them with some other veggies such as green onions, daikon radish, carrots, ginger, pepper and garlic. Kimchi is originated in Korea but each Japanese region also has it’s own pickled cabbage dish as well.
And my recipe is not really Korean recipe, I created this Kimchi recipe in Germany so each one of ingredients are accessible here in Berlin. You can already eat them right after pickling them but I personally like to let them ferment for half a day in room temperature and then 48H in fridge. When I plan to serve Kimchi at my cooking event as one of the toppings,
I usually pickle them on Thursday.
Kimuchi rewards us with : ・Healthy organic acids, phytochemicals and free amino acids. ・Giving rise to multiple probiotic strains of bacteria shown to survive stomach acid and provide health benefits in the colon.
・Lowering cholesterol. ・Improving insulin sensitivity to prevent and reverse diabetes. ・Boosting multiple mechanisms y which it may protect us from cancer.
And you don’t have to feel overwhelmed because you can make my version of Kimchi really fast.
So here you go.
Kimchi making starts from a supermarket.
You need to buy a specific cabbage for this dish.
It’s called “Chinese cabbage” or “Nappa”.
And check the weight of the cabbage when you buy it because if you buy
700g size cabbage you can just cut in half to create this amount of kimchi (2 small jars) and get the nice green one’s if possible.
700g should be enough Kimchi for a while.
Ingredients for the cabbage preparation
350g Chinese cabbage
2 green onions,some other veggies of your choice
1tbsp salt
Chop 350 g Chinese cabbage into bite-size pieces before salting.
Slice two green onions into 5 cm pieces as well.
Massage the Chinese cabbage and the green onions with some salt.
Leave the salted vegetables for at least 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes, rinse the vegetables with cold water and dehydrate by squeezing the vegetables.
Yes.it’s no longer very salty and it’s ok because we are going to
mix this squeezed cabbage and onions with this salty and spicy paste now.
Ingredients for the paste
3 tbsp sambal oelek
3 tbsp hon mirin (=Japanese sweet cooking rice wine)
(if not available, syrup or sugar could be used)
1 tbsp smoked paprika powder
1 tbsp brewer’s yeast
½ tsp powdered kombu kelp (just use a blender)
1 tbsp grated ginger
1 tbsp chopped lemongrass
1 tbsp grated garlic
(just mix all with a spoon)
Then mix the paste with the prepared Chinese cabbage in a bowl.
Let them ferment in a clean jar at room temperature for 12-24 hours to complete the process, and refrigerate it to slow the fermentation process.
In my opinion it tastes the best after 48hours, then starts to taste sour.
You can keep it in the fridge for a week.
Everything here except for the optional lemongrass is the key.
They are important ingredients that add Umami so this pickled cabbage
tastes already good right after mixing.